Kostnice

[kayte]

A celebration of the Bone Church of Prague. Frankincense, rosewood, lily, and geranium rose.

When I reviewed Eclipse, I wasn't sure if it was the frankincense or the heliotrope that put me off... Kostnice confirms that it is the frankincense. Oy vey.

In the imp it is a thick spicy scent undercut by a light, dainty pink rose.

Wet I realize that it is in fact frankincense and not heliotrope that hates me. Um. Between this and Eclipse, remind me to swear off the Frankincense.

Dry the frankincense is just so strong, and the rose is there, light and teasing me on my skin, and I keep hoping it will pop out and take its rightful place on top, but to no avail; the frankincense kills rose dead. Bah, this one is a failure.

[Voleuse]

I looked up the bone church as described, and I'm already fascinated.

 

The scent itself is a solemn, green floral on first application, fresh but static. As it dries, however, the blend takes on a woodsy bent, reminding me of polished wood and incense. This is the churchiest BPAL blend I've smelled yet, and it's beautiful. Cool and echoing and a little ancient. There's barely any incense, which I actually like--my chemistry tends to amp incense until I can't smell anything else.

 

I don't imagine I'd wear this much, but it's a gorgeous blend.

[Aurelius]

On my skin Kostnice smells how I imagined Zombi would smell. Instead of flowery and insence-y, as I expected, I smell like rich earth and florals. Very nice, but for me.

[PilotKitten]

At first whiff I get a heavy frankincense that whaps me over the head and after awhile the soft rose/rosewood peeking through. Better than I expected it to be.....

 

Must be the rose saving the day again. Very nice floral perfume, not headache-inducing and seems calmed by the rosewood for a nice heady blend.

[elfmaiden]

Having been to Prague and to the small villages that surround it, missing Kostnice by mere miles...This is exactly what I expected it to smell like. The frankincense is heavy and gloomy but held up by the lily and other undernotes. It's dark but in a fanscinatingly deep way that holds your interest.

 

It gives me the same sort of feeling as being around the more sombre and historical places of Eastern Europe.

 

This isn't a smell I would wear everyday, but more for something evening and mysterious, even serious.

 

I really like this and as it dries it rounds out very well.

 

Jenn

[hypatia]

Just on: Incense and wood. This stage lasts for a few minutes, then goes away. Just as well, because it's a little too distractingly incense-y to wear as perfume.

 

After a few minutes: it's sort of herbal with a lemon-verbena quality (even though there's no lemon verbena in it), and it reminds me of citronella candles. But in a good way; it's light and evocative.

 

After several hours: the lily makes an appearance. I thought it was wisteria until I looked at the ingredient list again. Ordinarily white florals are too heavy on me, but this is just right.

 

Verdict: not my usual style, but a good warm-weather scent. I don't get "cathedral" from it, but that may be because I've never been much of a churchgoer. To my nose, it smells like a warm summer evening with a breeze blowing.

[cranberry]

Weird, this smells like nuts on me. There’s a slight floral in the background, along with something slightly astringent. I found my frankincense EO, and after sniffing that, then my hand, I can detect frankincense slightly in the background. This is a really odd scent. I think it must be how it’s reacting with me and my chemistry.

 

After it’s been on a while, the weird nutty smell softens and I can smell the rosewood and lily. Soft and woody, slightly herbal. Behind it, there's the nuts.

 

This has been an interesting scent to test, and I’ll hang onto my imp just in case it’s due to a time of the month issue. But, at the same time, I’m in no hurry to repeat this experience.

[BrightRedScream]

In the vial: Frankinscence. With rose. Lots and lots of frankenscence and rose. Great.

I don't see this going very well.

 

Wet on the skin: ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE!

Oh yuck no...

Can you tell that I'm NOT a rose person? There are very few blends of anything that I like that have rose in them.

 

Dry down: Well there's that frankinscence again..and it makes the rose smell like a dryer sheet now. I'm getting something slightly herbal too...gardenia I guess? This doesn't really remind me of a church at all. It seriously reminds me of dryer sheets..and this imp is going in my swap pile.

Edited June 14, 2006 by BrightRedScream

[RavenVelith]

In the bottle: EUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHH! ....that's all. Frankinsence and the rosewood and the rose...oh geez. I felt a burning in my throat! Wah!

 

Wet: ROSE ROSE ROSE. X_X Oh too much. Hurts us. Burns us. No. Off. Off with thee.

 

Not for me.

Edited June 23, 2006 by RavenVelith

[themerrybaker]

Kostnice is very lily on me. The wood and geranium hover in the background. This does not last long, does not have a lot of throw, and has a bit of a cucumber undertone.

 

 

 

Kostnice is a nice light floral, but there are others I like better.

[Court Analyst/Strategist]

Almost instantaneously soap with a floral bent. Geranium rose, why must you betray me? I ordered an imp, futilely hoping the rosewood would show up on my skin chemistry despite the lily and the blasted geranium rose, but no such luck. Not even close. Now, I'm off to pray to the bpal gods for more rosewood blends with no florals in them to show up in the general catalogue.

 

Court

[edenssixthday]

Kostnice - for years I’ve been fascinated with the Sedlec Ossuary in Kostnice, so when I first discovered BPAL and I saw there was a scent named after Kostnice, it was the first scent to be added to my very first official BPAL order direct from the Lab. Likewise, when I received my first box full of imps, it was the first one I tested. I was instantly disappointed. It smelled dry and woody and had a very unappealing odor that made me not even want to test it. But test it I did, and it smelled as appalling on my skin as it did in the vial. I have since realized that rosewood isn’t a scent I care for, and frankincense has never been a scent I liked much. But rose and lily are two of my floral loves, and I had hoped they’d dominate this scent. Unfortunately, I couldn’t smell either over the frankincense/rosewood combo. I still would like to visit Kostnice, but I’m not going to be wearing this fragrance when I do.

[rainbow]

In bottle- frankinsence and rosewood.

 

On me- The wood note is very strong. This is very much a wood scent on me; I was surprised by just how much rosewood I seem to get. Rosewood is what I get for pretty much the duration fo wearing this, until the very end, when the scent morphs into something fresh and clean, like honeysuckle. It was a welcome surprise.

[Eunice]

Kostnice is very green lily overtop rosewood. I don't get the frankincense at all. This is very clean green lillies and rosy wood to me. I'd expected something heavier with the frankincense but since I can't make it out at all in this, Kostine just stays clean and refreshing.

[juniperus]

Bottle: lily, followed by the slight sharpness of geranium.

Wet: more of the rose with the lily, the sharpness gone.

Dry: rose disappearing again, lily is taking the lead. barely hints of the frankincense behind it, and the wood isn't much holding its own, either.

Later: growing....soapy. gah! I am so disappointed - I love frankincense and rosewood, I had such high hopes for this despite the presence of a dreading amp-y note. It amped, yes, but worse than that...it detergified.

[czuba]

Procured: Frimp

 

In Imp: Astrigent then a little dusty/dirt, old incense, and a bit of somwthing citrus

 

On skin, wet: Nasty, soapy - Safeguard soap---Husband made me wash it off

 

I really liked it in the imp; it just didn't like my skin.

[Melantha]

A pleasant scent. The lily is really up front for me, with the frankincense taking a back seat.

 

However, it doesn't make me go WOW!, and since there are so many of Beth's blends that do, I'll pass on my imp, hoping that someone will love it.

 

ADDED August 15:

 

In the Imp: I get almost a pale mint note here, which is odd. I also can detect the lily. I can't smell the frankincense.

 

Wet: Ah, there's the geranium! The mint is gone now.

 

Dry: A light floral, and there is almost no trace of the incense, which I think is strange, but it might be buried in the background.

 

It's okay, I guess.

[sofiaviolet]

Geranium rose and rosewood. The rosewood comes through even more strongly on my skin, but the flowers are really sharp, almost like carnations. It's quite nice, but I wouldn't wear it on its own and I already have Seance for layering with other roses.

 

EDIT: And it's making me sneeze. Aw hell no.

Edited August 12, 2006 by Sofia Blackthorne

[bifemmefatale]

I love BPAL's incense blends, but I remembered not liking this one in the imp when I smelled it at Convergence. Still, when I got a frimp of it I thought I'd give it a try.

 

Sharp and resinous in the imp. Something funky/musty. Have a feeling it's the rose geranium.

 

On: Frankincense!....soap. Dies off to nothing buy lily geranium soap in minutes. Ack. Swap.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Oooh, rosewood, mostly. Very pretty.

 

Wet: Rosewood, with the biting greenness of geranium.

 

Drydown: Slightly incensy rosewood with geranium. It's a surprisingly pleasant combination, woody and fresh at the same time. Slowly the lily starts appearing from under the rest, sweet and creamy and - uh-oh - ready to take over the blend. And... it starts smelling like pee. Eek.

 

Overall: It starts out very solemnly, with incense and rosewood and geranium, it's dark and atmospheric, very much like old stones lost in vegetation. And then, when the lily appears and the geranium develops, it smells like old stones lost in vegetation that used to be an urinal. Sigh. Pity, it started out so well.

[Musamea]

In the bottle: all dry, slightly smoky rosewood

 

Wet: mostly rosewood, with a whiff of frankincense

 

Dry: Interesting, the rose and lily make brief appearances and add sweetness to the blend, then they fade back and it's all dry rosewood, then a hint of smoky frankincense, and then it all starts over again, eventually calms down to rosewood

 

Overall: a bit too dry and woody for my taste

[jarvenpa]

The imp came as a kind gift (thank you).

 

Someday I will understand what note it is that my nose reads as dill pickles.

I thought, from another blend, that it might be juniper--but no juniper here.

The pickles are fleeting (visions of bounding little pickles, joyfully rushing into a meadow).

 

In the meadow they meet up with a whole bunch of tough lilies, and the lilies overpower them. Take that, dill pickle!!

 

And the lilies just wander about, being wan and lily-like, and sweet (their ninja moment over) and then:

 

why, it is a forest of attacking pencil shavings. Must be wood of some sort (later I see that rosewood is in the blend; I would have guessed cedar)

 

and finally, everything drifts away like: Ivory soap.

 

This is the first fragrance in which the mythic turns-to-soap experience happened for me. So, for that, very noteworthy.

 

That and the rambunctious pickles.

[wolfie13]

Yikes!

 

I love frankincense and rosewood, but am discovering that I may not like them TOGETHER. Add in the lily note - which I don't like generally and things have just gone way south.

 

It goes soapy on me quite quickly, with an additional odd "funky/musty" note as someone above pinpointed so well.

[LadyMedb]

Although I love incensy scents, the combination of lily and frankincense somehow makes this a little astringent and lemony. (Geranium, also, I think, doesn't agree with me, but it's minimal.) It's a clean scent, and a basically pleasant one, but it's not worth slathering all over yourself. Those who really love clean-smelling and slightly soapy perfumes may like this better.

Edited August 26, 2006 by LadyMedb

[sarahj]

Kostnice

 

freebie from the lab

 

in imp: strong lily with a hint of rosewood

 

wet: same

 

dry: mostly lily

 

verdict: nice, but not a favorite